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Just downloaded EQ2 trial
Doona
Member Posts: 28
in Everquest II
Have played and quite both WoW and LOTRO in the past year and now ive read a few bits here and there about EQ2 and looked like its worth checking out.
Never played EQ1 so im completely new to the series. Havent got onto the game yet because its updating etc. Can anyone give me a quick run down of what the game is like compared to LOTRO and WoW. What do you really like about it/dislike about it?
Also , if i get this choice with a trial , what will be the best server to choose , i like relatively populated servers and am a big RP fan.
Thanks
Comments
I havent played EQ2 enough to judge anything...
But if you played WoW and Lotro (Which are in many gameplay aspects similar, im NOT saying lotro is a clone please dont misinterpret this) and liked them, you wont really like EQ2.
Thats just my opinion though.
hehhe whoops , i meant to say i quit* playing them both in the past year. I liked LOTRO for about 4 weeks before the realisation that there was nothing original about it all set in. To sum up , i didnt like LOTRO online much really.
Play the trial - test all classes - explore the crafting - dont be in a rush to leave the isles or levelling up - it is a fun place. Plenty of hidden quests.
Tad confusing on the "heroic" combo-moves - but you'll get the hang of it. LOTRO is a "diluted" hybrid of WoW+EQ = Polished - but bland.
EQ2 crafting is quite indepth - soloing is fine till 20's but gets difficult upwards. Community is probably one of the best - spam is relatively non-existent. Too silent at times - but people are there - just play silently. They have help/level_channels use them if you have questions - be nice and avoid 133t_speak/txt_msg_spch.
EQ2 is quite heavy on your gfx card. So be sure to tweak down settings like glares/ lights/ shadows/ bloom/ flora/ etc if you're running jaggedly.
Overall - it a great game - find a good helpful guild or make a few good friends - since soloing it wont be viable in the long run.
EQ2 is possibly the most polished MMO out there with so many fetures.
Crafting is excellent
Harvesting is Excellent
There is TONS of content with side instances that just blow me away.
Im not a big raider so have little knowledge of that aspect of the game, but they have done an exceptional job with it, definitely worth a good long look in my opinion.
Really looking foward to playing but its taking an age to update!
Anyone got any advice in the way of which server to choose for RP'er like me?
Antonia Bayle. Still probably has the most population and it is the RP server also.
ive already essentially lost 2 days of my free trial just updating. This is taking forever.
If you think you will miss time to fully explore this relatively short trial (3 hours or so each character) just make another trial account. The best tip I can tell you is if you want to know more about this game, like you feel this wasn't enough, it's because you're kind of interessed about it. I'm not currently playing EQ2, but that hapenned to me, and I'm buying the all-in-one bundle with RoK very soon.
This doesn't make much sense.
It sounds like you passed judgement anyway...
Personally I like the game, LotRO and WoW never manage to keep my interest for long. EQ2 has. It doesn't matter if you haven't played EQ1, some would probably say its a good thing, since EQ1 and EQ2 are two completely different games, they are just based on the same world and lore.
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Leemeg.
I'll just write down random thoughts.
Well I got to lvl 57 but quit because it was boring to play alone. A tip is to get an RL friend to play with you otherwise it gets boring. I really enjoyed how the crafting system worked.
I thought that the old zones was really flat and ugly. I think that the animations are very tiresome because everyone has the same animations. everyone has the same essential skeleton, (everyone are humans with different faces) (EXLUDE ratonga+froglok). All the casters looks the same until they get raiding gear
The performance was really bad considering that the game is old and my computer should perform awesome in this game.
There are only 1 shoulder graphic and all the plate gear looks the same until you get to raiding. where there are 2 more shoulders.
Almost all the players are very kind and helpful.
Certain quests can span over severak days and makes you feel especially good when completing them (heritage quests).
It's really entertaining to decorate your house with exotic objects that you buy from others. It's fun to get better gear and buying Mastercrafted stuff.
It's annoying that some zones and certain parts of zones looks like they were made in like 1 afternoon and were declared finished.
The game makes you feel good as long as you have someone to play with, otherwise it feels like your doing it for no reason whatsoever. I mean you wanna brag about how well you managed to developed your character but nones there to care since "most" are kinda elitist (but helpful).
God I hate Pillar of Flame.
Freeport/Qeynos are too big for the ammount of things in the city itself and for the ammount of people that actially reside in the city.
Dark elfs are hot.Gnomes looks like bearded children.
Sometimes its unclear where a questNPC wants you to go.
The so called "PvP" in this game sucks very badly. allow me to elaborate. You start off fine, when you hit lvl 10 you are faced with a large ammount of ganking twinks that have lvl-locked whoms only objective is to kill you for fame or something. They suck and they have no skill. The "PvP" ruleset doesnt give a flying crap about new players and most of the players there spend their time on their twinks to experience the so called "pvp". There are no battlegrounds either so they spend their time griefing and shit. There are ways to get "used to it" and get "around it" but its nearly impossible for a new player. You'd have lock at lvl 9 and go farm mats, make friends with a good crafter that can make you MC gear. You'd have to play your ass off to get many AAs (like talent points in wow) since all the twinks have loads of these and will hand your ass to you in the snap of a finger. You'd also have to endure countless gang-kills and unfair fights. Eventually you will become one of the and the evil circle of death and despair and miserable game design is fullfilled. happy hunting
Just a few comments on mo0rbid's post, giving an alternative opinion from someone else who plays EQ2.
Well I got to lvl 57 but quit because it was boring to play alone. A tip is to get an RL friend to play with you otherwise it gets boring. I really enjoyed how the crafting system worked.
I've soloed up to 65 atm and had plenty of fun on the way. Some people think that grouping etc has to be mandatory in MMOs (they quote the first two Ms), but personally I think a lot of the social aspects can come from just interacting via the level wide chat etc.
The performance was really bad considering that the game is old and my computer should perform awesome in this game.
The game's (rather farmously I thought) graphics engine was designed for the future rather than the past i.e. a lot of the higher graphic options struggle on even top-notch machines now. This was a purposely state of affairs to future proof the game to some degree. Again I love this aspect. When I upgrade I see how much further I can push the graphics engine. Currently, with my 2GB RAM, 8800320 and quad core @2.4 it looks fantastic - and I'm not even on the highest settings yet.
The game makes you feel good as long as you have someone to play with, otherwise it feels like your doing it for no reason whatsoever. I mean you wanna brag about how well you managed to developed your character but nones there to care since "most" are kinda elitist (but helpful).
See above re grouping
Sometimes its unclear where a questNPC wants you to go.
Again this depends on the playstyle to some degree. Somepeople like to explore, to discover. Others have been reared on the accessability and instant thrill of WOW et al, and want thing described to them at every detail. Either way EQ2 has a couple of excellent support sites (the eq2 wiki and alla) that means you can simply look up what you need to do next if thats your preference.
Overall I love EQ2. I've tried LOTRO and WOW and keep returning to EQ2 simply because the balance of content, accessibility as well as the rate of expansion. It offers more satisfaction that the my-first-MMO of WOW etc, while still avoiding he hardcore-only aspects of EQ1 etc. You can solo all the way if you like - its been done plenty of times. People who say you can't simply don't know what they're talking about. And you can group as well if you like)
Ive downloaded the trial but my computer cant handle it so ive got a new graphics card coming my way. From what i saw when my computer was struggling to keep up with it , was really cool , the character creation was amazing - far more extensive and detailed than WoW but not to the ridiculous degree of something like Second Life. My trial is 'Play the fae' , so i was only allowed to make a Fae , will i only be able to play as the fae on this trial?
You should be able to just go ahead now and create another charcter using any race you want. You just need to create a Fae first.
It doesn't matter that it was "designed for the future" It's not an excuse for shabby coding. Take COD4 for example. Its a very well made piece of software. man it like, runs better than COD2.
EQ2 is good looking but only the characters are what I'd call "astonishing". The rest of the world is very far from the quality of the characters.
"I'm not even on the highest settings yet"
That's a bad thing.. very bad.. the game isnt THAT good looking that it should be near impossible to run on highest without performance issues.
It's not the top-notch computers that are "bad" for not being able to run EQ2 smoothly at highest settings. Its EQ2 thats villian in this drama. You shouldnt have to wait 4 years after a games release and even then only a very small percentage of the players can run the game on highest settings with a good, steady framerate
NOTE: FunkyLasagne, don't take this personal. I'm not really directing the content of this post to you but to SOE (as in I want them to make something about it instead of sitting there on their lazy asses :P)
EDIT: allthough I dont think its clear through my posts I really love and advocate the EQ universe. I find it cozy and "smart".
Again I disagree with you, and I rather think you've misinterpreted or misread that aspect of my post. The game will run fine if you tune down the settings - at least it did on my old very aged machine. The upper settings (the ones that are always tempting) are designed to futureproof the game beyond even now. Even on medium settings the game looks amazing IMO. I don't understand your issue with a publisher trying to design the game so that it does not look old as we move into the future. Coding has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Coding has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Coding has a lot to do with it.
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A RL friend stopped playing EQ2 with me because he couldn't stand the bad performance.
he upper settings (the ones that are always tempting) are designed to futureproof the game beyond even now. Even on medium settings the game looks amazing IMO. I don't understand your issue with a publisher trying to design the game so that it does not look old as we move into the future.
What about Crysis then? People can run that on highest settings without performance issues and its a new game. (its not even released yet)
My issue with a publisher trying to design the game so that it does not look old as we move into the future is that EQ2 doesnt even look _that_ good (considering how it runs)! You use the word "future" but the eq2 graphics are clearly not "new".
You could run this game on absolute highest settings with no framerate issues if you like ran SLI on 8800 ultra and 4gbs of fast ram etc etc but it doesnt have to be like that because the game isnt like ex. crysis(graphics-wise) and it isnt from 2007
I run the game with all settings at max, even on raids. And yes.. it is 'that' good. In terms of particle effects and lighting id say its probably even better than Oblivion. Most of the time peoples complaints about performance is actually a combination of their internet connection and their actual computer settings.
I ran the game at medium settings when i first played and lowest settings on raids (with only texture resolution maxed) and the game still looked great. The problem is that people hate seeing that they arent running the game at the highest settings, it makes them feel like their computer is crap and they end up hating the game.
If your computer is chugging a bit take off environmental shadows and torch lights. They slow down performance more than anything else and they get a bit messy anyway in most places.
I just wish they would stop advertising using the old character models, the SOGA designed models look so much better. The characters dont look like play-doh with those settings on.
Performance issues? I have been playing EQ2 since launch on the same computer with the same components, I play with maximum character quality and high enviroment quality(shadows off) and only lag in the nortorious lag spots like Qeynos Harbor. Shadows are a performance killer, I only turn them on for screenshots.
AMD 1700+ 2 gig DDR with a 128 meg AGP 4x Raedon. Nothing unreasonable there.
But, threre really are not any major differences of significance between them.
Just my 2c, and probably only worth that much.
Good Hunting
Having played EQ2 for about a year and a half and testing both WoW and LotR (which I both found so-so), here's what I can compare (and no, I don't play EQ2 right now, no money):
EQ2's harvesting/crafting is lightyears ahead of what's in the other two games. If you enjoy crafting, EQ2 will probably convince you to subscribe just for that part of the game.
Housing is also rather well done in EQ2 although I was not able to check out how WoW and LotR's compared. Lots of customization possible and opportunities to play house if that's what you enjoy.
Quests galore. Especially for the first 20 levels or so there's so much content you'll never be able to do it all with one character, even if you turn adventuring xp off. Overall leveling can be done just by exploring and questing although I found lvls 50-60 to be a bit on the low side content-wise compared to 61-70.
I think EQ2 and WoW's adventuring compare positively while LotR's felt a bit flat. Contrary to what's been said it's quite possible to solo most of the content, no matter your level (soloed from 1 to 70 with a templar, notoriously the slowest soloers around, doing mostly exploration/quesating)
Storywise EQ2 may not be as developped as LotR but at the same time it doesn't feel as claustrophobic since the world is large and content isn't all in just a couple of zones.
They've done a good job spreading the content around to encourage exploration. Grouping can be fun with the right people but most of the time it's more for fun than to complete quests. Some do require grouping however (like the Heritage quests).
Some zones used to be very solo-unfriendly but they've been modified to help newer players not get discouraged.
So to summarize, I think the best part about EQ2 is its crafting system and housing while having questing/soloing/leveling roughly on par with WoW's.
Visually it depends entirely on what you enjoy. Personally I like the graphics, others won't but that's a matter of taste really, it shouldn't affect one's opinion of the game. Character creation offers a lot of options (which I find a bit overdone really) so if you enjoy that you're sure to like the game as well.
i definitely agree with your assessment. eq2 has come a long way. i had to quit for a bit due to RL issues, but going back in decemeber. one of my favorite MMO's currently. i have about 4 alts on 1 server and lvl 69 main. love this game. and its beautiful when u can play it at max settings. i play on blackburrow server and find it a very active server.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
Hello again everyone. Ive played the trial to a level 8 druid and i think its fantastic , quests are innovative, people are really helpful , the best character creation out there. I live in the UK , is there a way to play on USA servers because theres only 2 EU ones and they seem a bit de-populated? I think i'll buy the game because from what ive seen and heard its one of the best mmorpgs and a world away from the dull clone that LOTRO is. Does the all-in-one package include the new expansion thats coming or will i have to buy that when it comes out?
The new all-in one package will include the new expansion + everything else.
Click this and change it to English [US]. Now you will have the choice of all the US servers.